“In turn, we will be tempted to kill our computers, but we won’t dare because we are already utterly, irreversibly dependent on these hopeful monsters that make modern life possible.”

Ironically, the thing that will likely make the least improvement in the ease of use of software-based products is new technology.

When I was a teenager, that was when I fell in love with music. It affected me in a deep way. That’s why I love having teenagers at our shows.

It has also been said that the software industry is an example of midgets standing on the toes of other midgets.

Men do not greet one another like this … except perhaps at rugby club dinners.

I just like so many different kinds of music that I like experimenting. I don’t want to keep making the same record over and over and over.

As these machines leak into every corner of our lives, they will annoy us, infuriate us, and even kill a few of us.

To scenes by memory’s silver chain Close-linked, and ever yet apart, That like the vine, whose tendrils young Around some fostering branch have clung, Grown with its growth, as tho’ it sprung From one united heart.

In other words, humans have special instincts that tell them how to behave around other sentient beings.

Computer memories work in a manner alien to human memories. My memory lets me recognize the faces of my friends, whereas my own computer never even recognizes me.

Because computers have memories, we imagine that they must be something like our human memories, but that is simply not true.

It has been said that the great scientific disciplines are examples of giants standing on the shoulders of other giants.

Run for your lives-the computers are invading. Awesomely powerful computers tackling ever more important tasks with awkward, old-fashioned interfaces.

There is little difference technically between a complicated, confusing program and a simple, fun, and powerful product.

If we want users to like our software we should design it to behave like a likeable person: respectful, generous and helpful.

The things like that we could fight about, we really don’t. We are pretty lucky for that.

I just try and learn to be a good husband and be a good father before I am a good rock star. That means saying no to certain things that go with the business.

Computer literacy is a contact with the activity of computing deep enough to make the computational equivalent of reading and writing fluent and enjoyable.

The computer is simply an instrument whose music is ideas.

When the Mac first came out, Newsweek asked me what I [thought] of it. I said: Well, it’s the first personal computer worth criticizing.

I don’t know how many of you have ever met Dijkstra, but you probably know that arrogance in computer science is measured in nano-Dijkstras.

My computer’s memory stores a million phone numbers with perfect accuracy, but I have to stop and think to recall my own.

Computer memories work in a manner alien to human memories. My memory lets me recognize the faces of my friends, whereas my own computer never even recognizes me.

Because computers have memories, we imagine that they must be something like our human memories, but that is simply not true.

Run for your lives-the computers are invading. Awesomely powerful computers tackling ever more important tasks with awkward, old-fashioned interfaces.